FAIRFIELD TWP. — Neither affected municipalities nor nature conservation groups have sat idle as the state proposes cutting payments they make on land they own.

A third of the $9.8 million Payment in Lieu of Taxes budget was cut for fiscal year 2010, which meant municipalities receiving payment from the state for their tax-exempt property was cut, as well.

The Christie Administration has expressed its interest in chopping that $9 billion budget to nothing in light of continuing economic hardships.

Local governments from four area counties, including Cumberland, have joined an effort sprung by the American Littoral Society’s Delaware Bay Program to fight these cuts.

“We’ve gone into overdrive, asking each and every town in Cumberland, Salem, and Cape May Counties to pass a resolution, educating them on this issue with letters and phone call follow-up to each town,” said Matt Blake, of the Littoral Society.

Freeholder boards in Salem, Cumberland and Cape May counties have signed their support, as well.

“Now that the towns are doing their part, South Jersey’s lawmakers need to step up their efforts and take these resolutions to Trenton and fight for this funding before it goes away,” said Blake.

The PILOT program, which began over 40 years ago, was placed under the Garden State Preservation Trust in 1999.

Now, the payments that help to offset lost tax revenue are expected by many to undergo a series of three major cuts.

Step 1 of the phase out has already occurred.

The roughly $9 million budget stands at around $6.5 million and the next cut is expected by many when Gov. Christie gives his budget address.

Bill Quinn, if the state treasury department, said earlier this year that cutting the PILOT program “wasn’t a three-year plan.

“A lot of cuts were made. This was one of them,” he said, adding that the current payment totals could hold when the state does reveal its budget.

The fiscal year 2010 PILOT summary sheet displays in exact figures just how financially significant this funding is for many municipalities.

Of Fairfield Township’s 27,056 acres, nearly 10,000 are either state-owned or nonprofit tax exempt open spaces. For that, Fairfield received $57,750 in 2009, at $5 per acre.

PILOT payments work on a sliding scale. If more than 40 percent of a municipality is tax-exempt then payments are made at $10 per acre.

Fairfield missed that mark by about 5 percent.

Fairfield Deputy Mayor Ernie Zirkle announced at a recent committee meeting that his township may have another approach in mind.

Though he is still working on the figures, he knows the state payments are greater than what would be paid in taxes if the open space was privately owned.

“Rather than holler, ‘Don’t take it away,’ we understand why it should be cut,” he said. His understanding is that PILOT payments do not represent current values.

He is proposing the open spaces be revalued and payments continued to be made, only this time at present market rates.

An additional twist to lost payments is the incentive to keep these open spaces open. Will municipalities continue to preserve vast portions of nature if the state no longer backs them?

Blake believes those involved in his initiative “fear that eliminating PILOT will have a chilling effect on statewide efforts to preserve additional open space, as well as farmland.”

He added the losses would negatively impact the $4 billion eco-service and eco-tourism industry as well.

“There are over 1.7 million wildlife watchers in New Jersey, spending an average of $288 per year on this activity alone, much of which occurs thanks to state lands,” he said.